Bliss, by Katherine Mansfield

SUMMARY, by Josep Guiteres

Bertha Young, a 30-year-old young woman, was married to Harry, whom she adored and loved, just like he adored her. They had a daughter, Bertha, whom she loved madly. Her husband had money and a good job, and they lived in a beautiful house with a garden. They also had friends of similar level to theirs.

Bertha felt completely happy, perhaps until the end of the night when they had invited the couple Norman Knight and wife, a theatre entrepreneur, Eddy Warren (a writer), and Pearl Fulton (a decorator) to dinner.

Bertha felt admiration and affection, or perhaps something more, for Pearl, unlike her husband Harry, who apparently detested her.

At the end of the dinner, when the guests left, Bertha realized that Pearl and her husband Harry were in a relationship. So Bertha asked herself the big question: and now what is going to happen?

 

PERSONAL REFLECTION

Because of the details that Katherine provides in her magnificent short story “Bliss”, and because of the analysis that Dr Oliver Tearle makes of the short story, I believe that if Katherine had continued writing after Bertha’s question, “what is going to happen now?”, she could have written a lot of different endings, but due to her short life she decided not to waste time on it, leaving this work to her readers.

QUESTIONS

-The story’s morality seems to be “ignorance is bliss”, or “out of sight, out of mind”. From your experience, what do you think it’s better: to always tell the truth, or to hide the things you imagine they can hurt?

-According to your view, why the baby is called “Little B”?

-Why is Bertha suddenly full of desire for her husband? Why was she generally cold?

-At the end, what do you think it will happen to their marriage? Is he going to break up with Miss Fulton? Is Bertha going to forgive him?

-What can be the meaning of The parable of the young women? (page 180, line 4/5)

-Along the story, we find some hints / signs that make us suspect that something happens between Miss Fulton and Harry. Can you tell us some of these hints?

-“Bertha guessed Miss Fulton’s mood so exactly…” This was Bertha’s first impression. Do you trust first impressions? Tell us an anecdote of yours where you had a first impression, and then, after knowing better the person, you had to change it.

-“In the drawing room, perhaps she [Miss Fulton] will ‘give a sign’ [to Bertha]”. Do you believe in love at first sight? How can you be aware that someone is in love with you?

-What is the meaning of these different symbols?

Fiddle

Tangerines, apples, strawberry, grapes

Pear tree (in bloom)

Cats (grey, and black -its shadow)

Lobster flesh

 

VOCABULARY

bowl a hoop, fiddle, M’m, tangerines, nursery, tugged, sound, make sb out, dullish, catching sb’s heels, couches, jonquils, stodgy, fluke, rose to a man, bored, fillet, snip, conservatory, teeming

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS IN VIDEO

AUDIOBOOK

How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped, by Katherine Mansfield

SUMMARY

Pearl Button is a little girl living in a big and rich house, a kind of house that she calls House of Boxes. At the moment of the story, she is playing in the garden, when two big and fat women (perhaps native New Zealander people or gipsies) get there. They liked the child very much and offer her to go with them. At first, the girl has some doubts, but, as the two women seem very nice and wear coloured robes, she decides to go. So they go away from the girl’s house on foot, but, after a while, the girl feels tired, and one of the women carry her. They arrive to their camp; there everybody is very nice, and they give her some fruit. She likes it very much, and, although she stains her dress, nobody worries about it. Then they leave their camp and drive on carts until they reach the beach; Pearl has never seen the sea and she’s amazed and happy. She sees the small houses where these happy people live; the women take off her clothes, and all of them go to the shore. A small wave wets Pearl’s feet and, after the first surprise, she enjoys it very much. But, at this moment, policemen arrive to rescue the girl.

But, was the girl really kidnapped? Or is it better to say that she ran away from her boring life? Were the two women kidnapping her? Or were they only inviting her?

To be happy, do you have to break the rules, do you have to escape from the routine?

There is a narrator in this story, but sometimes this narrator uses the characters’ words and thoughts to tell the story, e.g., “House of Boxes”. What is the effect of this? Don’t you feel nearer the characters? The distance between narrator and character is broken and you are aware you know better their feelings, their points of view.

AUDIOBOOK

 

QUESTIONS

What does the name’s girl suggest to you?

What resources does the author use to make the two women nice for us?

What does a “House of Boxes” look like?

Do you think the girl cried because she was afraid? How do you know?

“The woman was warm as a cat”. What animal do you think is the best pet for a child? Why?

Are fat people nicer or kinder, according to the cliché? Are they more “comfortable”?

Why dies the writer says “[the water] stopped being blue in her hands”?

Who were the “little men in blue coats”? How do you know?

What do you know about the Stockholm syndrome?

 

VOCABULARY

swung, rugs, whip, briar, nestled, purring, paddock, coaxed